Day 14 - Nov 21 - In Antarctica…..finally! Expedition Day in the Northern Weddell Sea

This morning we entered the Antarctic Peninsula region and headed into the Weddell Sea. After two days at Sea with absolutely no sight of land, seeing some land was a blessing and that too Antarctic Land!

The Weddell Sea is a great ice-filled sea that indents the continent of Antarctica between the Antarctic Peninsula and Cape Norvegia in Queen Maud Land. The sea was discovered in 1823 by James Weddell of the Royal Navy, who named it the George IV Sea. The name was changed to honor Weddell in 1900.

Like the 1901-04 Nordenskjold Expedition aboard the 'Antarctic', we took our expedition through Antarctic Sound to skirt the northern fringe of the Weddell Sea. Antarctic Sound is bordered by the Trinity Peninsula to the west and D'Urville, Joinville, Dundee and Paulet Islands on the east. During much of the year, pack ice makes passing through the Antarctic Sound impossible. The Antarctic had to alter her course to travel east of the islands. She was trapped in the ice for several weeks and eventually sank 40km east of Paulet. Captain Larsen and members of his party sledded for 14 days to reach Paulet where they constructed a stone hut in which they spent the winter of 1903. 

Brown Bluff, a continental landing, is a tuya located at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. It formed in the past 1 million years, which erupted subglacially within an englacial lake. The volcano's original diameter is thought to have been about 12-15 kilometers, and probably formed by a single vent. Brown Bluff is subdivided into four stages: pillow volcano, tuff cone, slope failure, and hyaloclastite delta and into five structural units. The volcano is named "Brown Bluff" because of its steep slopes and its brown-to-black hyaloclastite. 

I set foot officially on Antarctic Land this morning at 9:18am (Local Time) on Brown Bluff. What a feeling. This is the coldest, driest, loneliest place on earth. The temperature this morning was frigid at -6 C or with a windchill it was 15F I think. We were instructed to layer up as much as possible. I wore two pairs of gloves and that didn't help for long! But I ended up spending 2 hours on Brown Bluff which had a huge Adelie Penguin Colony. These penguins are little and cute! 

An Adelie Penguin

We hoped to encounter our first sea ice of the voyage today but we didn't find anything that was good enough to walk on. A little disappointed but hoping we find some during our stay in the Antarctic.
Looking for fast ice for us to walk on!
The ship tearing through ice - picture taken from the top of the bow of the ship.
Ship 'Kissing' and Iceberg!